Anthony Mackie Says Chris Evans Shared Endgame Captain America Script Pages Early

Anthony Mackie has shared a more personal account of how he learned that Sam Wilson would inherit Captain America’s shield. Rather than discovering the moment through the ordinary production process, Mackie says Chris Evans showed him the relevant Avengers: Endgame script pages early at Evans’ home.

It is a small behind-the-scenes story attached to one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest symbolic transitions. Evans had played Steve Rogers, the original MCU Captain America, since 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. In Endgame, released in 2019, Steve gives the shield to Mackie’s Sam Wilson. Mackie later led Captain America: Brave New World, his first feature film as the title hero, in 2025.

A handoff that Mackie learned about from Evans

Mackie described Evans as someone he holds close and recalled that Evans had received the pages first because he was then playing Captain America. Evans asked whether Mackie had read the new scene, then brought him to read the script when Mackie said he had not.

The significance was not merely that Mackie got an early spoiler. The pages spelled out an enormous professional milestone: Sam Wilson would move from being a major supporting Avenger and Steve Rogers’ ally to carrying the Captain America identity. Mackie said the experience was both moving and special because he learned it from a friend.

He also framed Evans’ response as an act of generosity. A franchise role can define an actor’s public association with a character for years, and Mackie acknowledged the unusual position plainly: in practical terms, he was taking over a job Evans had held. Rather than treating that as a loss or a guarded production secret, Mackie said Evans celebrated the moment with him.

For Mackie, the early read made the reveal emotional because it came from a friend who understood exactly what the shield represented.

Why the shield matters beyond a costume change

In superhero storytelling, a mantle is the heroic name, costume, emblem or broader identity that can be passed from one character to another. Captain America’s shield operates as all of those things at once in the MCU: it is a recognizable prop, a visual identifier and a narrative marker of who is entrusted with the role.

That is why the closing exchange in Avengers: Endgame carried more weight than a routine sequel tease. Steve Rogers had been central to the Marvel films since Evans first appeared as the character in 2011. Passing the shield to Sam gave Marvel a direct on-screen bridge between the two actors’ eras, while also giving Mackie a definitive path to the lead role.

Mackie’s recollection adds a human layer to a scene built for a giant audience. Screenplays for major franchise films are often closely handled before release, particularly when a scene establishes a substantial future direction. The supplied account does not detail the production’s procedures or when Mackie otherwise would have seen the material. What it does establish is that Evans personally chose to share this particular reveal with him ahead of time.

That distinction is important. This was not Mackie describing a rumor, an assumption about where the character might go, or a public reveal after the film opened. He says he read the pages that made the transition clear. In a universe that frequently uses post-credits scenes, crossovers and long-running character arcs to signal what comes next, the Endgame scene was unusually direct: the shield changed hands on screen.

From Falcon to Captain America

Mackie’s Sam Wilson was already closely linked to Captain America before the handoff. But the 2019 ending gave that relationship a new meaning. Sam was no longer only standing beside Steve Rogers; he was being selected to continue the Captain America legacy.

Captain America: Brave New World made that transition the basis for Mackie’s first feature as the character’s lead. The progression is therefore clear in the available timeline:

Evans first appeared as Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011.
Avengers: Endgame passed Captain America’s shield from Steve Rogers to Sam Wilson in 2019.
Mackie headlined Captain America: Brave New World in 2025.

For audiences, a hero’s succession can look inevitable once the finished scene is on screen. Mackie’s story illustrates how much of its emotional force depended on trust between performers. Evans was not simply another cast member with advance pages; he was the actor most closely associated with the role Mackie was about to assume.

It also helps explain why the succession has remained a notable MCU moment even after Mackie’s move to leading-man status. The scene resolves Steve Rogers’ journey while opening Sam Wilson’s next chapter in a single gesture. It lets one actor leave the role and another enter it without pretending the earlier performance did not shape the character’s meaning.

Endgame returns to theaters with new footage

The renewed attention comes as Avengers: Endgame has returned to theaters in a special re-release called Avengers: Endgame Encore, which includes extra footage. The theatrical run is positioned ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for Dec. 18.

The re-release generated $26 million domestically over its opening weekend and $60 million overseas, for a reported $86 million worldwide. Before the re-release, the film had already earned $2.79 billion and ranked as the second-highest-grossing movie in box-office history. Its cumulative gross now stands at $2.88 billion.

Those figures put the return in useful perspective. This is not a minor catalogue title receiving a nostalgic one-off screening; it is a theatrical revival of a film that was already among the biggest commercial releases ever. Extra footage can give returning viewers a reason to revisit a familiar blockbuster, but the central attraction is still the original film’s status as a culmination of a long-running ensemble story.

The timing also underscores Marvel’s continued reliance on legacy and continuity. Endgame contains the pivotal Captain America exchange that led to Mackie’s later starring role, while its return comes in advance of another Avengers film. For viewers revisiting the movie, the shield scene now lands differently than it did in 2019: it is no longer just a promise about Sam Wilson’s future, but part of an established transition that reached a feature-film lead role in Brave New World.

What Mackie’s story says about franchise succession

There is no indication that Mackie is claiming the transition was easy, automatic or without pressure. His point is narrower and more revealing: Evans met a potentially complicated professional change with warmth. Mackie specifically emphasized that he does not think every actor would have approached the handoff that way.

That matters because fictional succession and real-world succession are different things. On screen, Steve Rogers chooses Sam Wilson. Off screen, a major studio franchise shifts its central role from one performer to another. Both processes can invite comparisons, expectations and questions about who is replacing whom. Mackie’s account suggests Evans made room for celebration rather than allowing the practical reality of the change to overshadow it.

As the wider movie-franchise calendar continues to evolve, other projects are also building on established names and returning characters; Don’t Breathe 3 is in development with Stephen Lang and Jane Levy expected back. Mackie and Evans’ story, however, concerns a different kind of continuation: not simply returning to a familiar series, but formally transferring its defining heroic identity.

For Mackie, the memorable detail remains the setting and the gesture. Before audiences watched Sam Wilson receive the shield, Mackie says Chris Evans let him see the moment privately. The finished scene may be one of the MCU’s most public passing-of-the-torch moments; its earliest impact, Mackie recalls, was shared quietly between two friends.